Beginnings

"Beginnings" is the debut extended play from American musical artist and Flex Entertainment executive beetlebat, released on October 23, 2020. It includes a feature from Lil Squeaky. The project is a mix of pop rap to hip hop. It is seen as Beetle's first impression as a musical artist. The production consisted of free-for-profit YouTube beats with engineering from J1D and Lil Squeaky. It features generic rap lyric themes about flexing and making a come up with additional details to his life.

The EP includes the singles "Physics", "On The Regular", and "Patrol." It received negative to mixed reviews upon its release, but has since been regarded as a Flex Entertainment classic.

Background
"Beginnings" is Beetle's debut EP. Beetle first discovered Flex Entertainment through Brad Taste in Music's video about Lil Mosquito Disease's "Infection." He started listening to multiple songs from the label and joined their discord in November 2019. Beetle decided to release a song himself, a school project for his Physics class. On December 22, he released "Physics", a parody of Maroon 5's "Memories." He announced he would be releasing an extended play titled "Beginnings" in 2020. Mosquito and Schmoobin liked the song and signed him to Flex Entertainment on December 29, 2019. The music video for "Physics" was released on January 12, 2020. The video gained around 200 views in twenty-four hours, a record for him. Maroon 5 themselves may have seen the video. On January 31, 2020, he became a Flex Entertainment executive for the creation of the Flex Entertainment Hot 100 chart. He released his second single "On The Regular" on June 5, 2020. A music video for the song was released on June 21, 2020.

A song titled "Fresh" was previewed at the 2020 Flexfest festival. On October 20, 2020, he released a trailer which announced that the EP would be released on October 23. It also previewed the instrumental for the intro track "Here We Go." The next day, he announced the track listing for the EP which would have six songs, including the two previous singles, and a song that features Lil Squeaky "Patrol."

After the release of the EP on October 23, he would upload a video two days later discussing the story of the EP and how it all came about. He described it as his breakthrough as a musical artist for the first time. He later informed people it would be the "most basic thing you'd here from him" and that it would "only get better."

Recording
All six tracks from the EP were written and recorded in Beetle's home studio through Audacity and a Blue Snowball microphone. The mixing and mastering was performed by J1D (Fresh) and Lil Squeaky (Here We Go, Turn It Up, & Patrol). "Physics" and "On The Regular" were both raw recordings with very little mixing done by Beetle. "Patrol" was originally supposed to feature his best friend Domumus but he decided to not move forward with the verse out of fear he would mess up the song. Producer 5ach!† was originally supposed to mix "Turn it Up" but was fired after getting banned from the Flex Discord server. The recording process dates from October 2020 to October 2021.

Music and Lyrics
The lyrical content of the EP was mainly basic rapping material about flexing and making a come up. All the production for the project was taken off YouTube as free-for-profit beats, excluding the opening track produced by Lil Toy Yoda. "Here We Go" is a conscious intro track that discusses how he started his music making journey. He calls back to the extra credit assignment in his Physics which inspired his song of the same name. The second verse sees him growing into the mold of a musical artist. "On The Regular" is the second song, a R&B/Hip hop song with a chill vibe to it. There are some silly lines in the song that Beetle calls "comedy." The first verse is mainly flexing and the second verse is about struggles. The entire song is about making music regularly with his label. The third song "Fresh" sees Beetle feeling good about himself after the support he has received from his hometown surrounding his music. He even references one of the only famous figures from his area Clem Sohn. The fourth track "Patrol" is a west-coast sounding hip hop track about taking over the rap scene along with a verse from the only feature Lil Squeaky. The fifth track "Turn It Up" is a party track about "turning up" in the club. It samples the viral video of a Texas high schooler yelling "turn it up" in November 2019. Beetle calls it his "worst song" but still finds the song enjoyable due to it being the most Flex Entertainment sounding song he has. The final track is "Physics" which fits as a proper ending to the EP using the song that started it all. It is a school parody of Maroon 5's "Memories." Just like "Memories", it is based on the harmonic sequence of "Pachelbel's Canon" by Johann Pachelbel. It is arranged around light keys and guitars. The instrumental was created by Queen Karaoke. He took the lyrics of "Memories" by Maroon 5 and rewrote them into a school parody.

Singles
"Physics" was released on December 22, 2019, as the lead single for the EP. It is a school parody of Maroon 5's "Memories." The song received positive feedback from critics and fans. A music video was released on January 12, 2020, earning two hundred views in 24 hours. It is his first single ever under the beetlebat name. The song peaked at No. 15 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. It had a lot of longevity on the charts, lasting 24 weeks on the Hot 100. The audio and music video have reached 3K views and 190 likes in total. It is his highest viewed music video. It was certified five-times platinum by Flex Entertainment.

"On The Regular" was released on June 5, 2020 as the second single for the EP. It debuted at No. 28 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. The following week, it rose to No. 18. A music video for the song was released on June 21, 2020. The video propelled the song to No. 10, becoming his first top ten single. It was also featured on the Flex Entertainment compilation album Flex Gang, Vol. 2. Five months after its peak, it returned to its peak in its 30th week after being featured in Hip Hop HQ's worst songs list. It has spent 36 weeks in the Top 50, one of the longest runs in the chart's history for a song that barely scratched the top ten. It was certified eight-times platinum by Flex Entertainment.

"Patrol" was released as a single along with a remix featuring a new verse from Lil Squeaky, Lil Mosquito Disease, and Young Ryan G on December 25, 2020. A music video was planned for release in January 2021 but was cancelled due to Mosquito and Squeaky not sending in their parts. "Patrol" initially debuted at No. 13 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100, as the standout from the project. After the release of the remix, it leaped to a new peak of No. 5, becoming Beetle's second Top 10 single. It spent twenty-seven weeks on the chart in total. It was certified six-times platinum by Flex Entertainment.

Critical Reception
The EP was met with negative to mixed reviews from critics initially, calling the rapping "mediocre" but the songs were relatively "catchy and charming." As time went on, the release started becoming much more appreciated for how memorable every track was and the three singles being considered some of the most iconic songs in the label's history. It is now seen as a "classic" in the Flex Entertainment catalogue which is a complete 180 from the initial criticism it got. Beetle himself says the EP has a special place in his heart, seeing it more as a "starting point" than a complete story.

It currently has a 60 on AlbumOfTheYear from 23 users and a 3.07 on RateYourMusic from 5 users.

Controversies
The release for "Beginnings" was set to be on the same day that Flex newcomer Ya Boy Payden would release his debut mixtape "16-Bit Fantasy." The staff team was worried that Beetle would overshadow Payden and nobody would flock to hear his new release. Beetle even offered to have no listening party for his project in order to give Payden some recognition. Both artists ended up having listening parties on the same night. Later conflict would unfold when Payden submitted his streaming numbers with clearly botted numbers from his friends. Beetle would end up nerfing Payden's streams on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100 chart, which he would receive a lot of flack for, adding onto the lack of credibility the chart had already been given. Beetle had since apologized to Payden about the incident and the two have since became good friends, collaborating on several songs together.

He had also gotten into a beef with electronic producer 5ach!†. 5ach!† was originally commissioned to mix one of Beetlebat's songs "Turn it Up", but after a decision of banning him from the Flex Entertainment Discord server, he was blocked and fired, with the mixing being handled with Lil Squeaky instead. A few months later after the song's release on "Beginnings", 5ach!† decided to take action against Beetlebat and Lil Squeaky. 5ach!† claimed it was "unfair" due to him being friended with Beetlebat on Discord which made no reason for Beetlebat to block him, as well as his dislike over Lil Squeaky's mix in the song which had vocals (whether intentionally or not) louder than the beat. Their beef was later resolved.

Chart performance
The EP was a commercial success in the Flex Entertainment bubble with every song from the project landing in the top twenty on its first tracking week. It has racked up eighteen thousand streams across all platforms despite its six track length. It was certified two-times platinum by Flex Entertainment.

Beginnings debuted at number seven on the Braeden's Most Played Albums chart with 130,000 units sold. It is his first top ten album. The following week, it moved up to a new peak of number three with 200,000 units sold in its first full tracking week. It lasted three weeks in the top ten. It was the 98th best-selling album of 2020. It was certified Platinum by BMP.

Track Listing

 * 1) "Here We Go"
 * 2) "On The Regular"
 * 3) "Fresh"
 * 4) "Patrol" (feat. Lil Squeaky)
 * 5) "Turn It Up"
 * 6) "Physics"

Personnel

 * beetlebat - primary artist (1-6), engineer (2, 6)
 * Lil Squeaky - mix engineer (1, 4-5), featured artist (4)
 * J1D - engineer (3)
 * Lil Toy Yoda - producer (1)
 * MALU - producer (2)
 * Getzh - producer (3)
 * CrazyMadeIt - producer (4)
 * Frozy - producer (5)
 * Queen Karoke - producer (6)